LOWER SALFORD >> Lower Salford police on Monday characterized an area credit/debit card breach that occurred in the spring as a “cyber-attack,” and said that while a probe into the situation has not yet yielded any suspects, the breach appears to have been resolved.

“We are certain the source of the breach was through a cyber-attack and it was not from anyone at any of the local businesses,” said Sgt. Cory Moyer. That conclusion, Moyer said, has been confirmed by the U.S. Secret Service.

In mid-May, after Lower Salford police became aware of “an increasing number of compromised credit/debit card accounts” in the area, Moyer said that the department’s investigation determined that “information that is being stolen from debit and credit cards is being used to create counterfeit cards that are being used across the United States and abroad ... because so many victims are local residents, there is a possibility that the point of compromise is also local.”

Following a May 15 article in The Reporter, one resident commented on The Reporter’s Facebook page that she had seen charges on a compromised card coming from California, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Canada and Saudi Arabia. Others said the cards were being used in chain stores such as Walmart and Office Max, particularly in the South and Southwest regions of the United States.

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At the end of May, Lower Salford police said that approximately 100 people had reported to police that their cards had been compromised, but that additional victims may have only reported the fraudulent activity to the financial institution that issued the card.

On Monday, Moyer said that “as of this time, the exact source of the breach and the person or persons responsible for the breach have not been identified,” adding that “the number of reported credit card breaches with any ties to local merchants [has] significantly declined” since the situation first became known to authorities.

The investigation is ongoing, according to Moyer.

Because such security breaches at retail establishments and other businesses have become commonplace throughout the U.S., Lower Salford police have urged area residents to monitor their credit/debit statements and immediately report any fraudulent transactions to the financial institution that issued their card(s).

Additionally, police have said, residents can further protect themselves by monitoring their credit history via one of three credit reporting bureaus: Experian (1-888-397-3742 or www.experian.com), Equifax (1-800-525-6285 or www.equifax.com) or TransUnion (1-800-680-7289 or www.tuc.com).

Individuals concerned about their accounts being compromised can also contact their financial institutions and request new credit/debit cards be issued in order to thwart fraudulent activity, police said.